Ex-Tibianews Deputy Editor Subaru-Sama was interviewed by our ex-staff member and Newshawk Necro Gardius.

Tibianews: How did you discover Tibia?

Subaru-Sama: My little brother played Tibia before I was. As I was somewhat interested in roleplaying at that time, I decided to give it a try.

Tibianews: And how long have you played this game?

Subaru-Sama: My account says my account is made just a few days short of August, 2003. So I've pestered the game for 3 and a half year. Quite an accomplishment for the game. I expected it'd be tired of me much sooner. I did have a few periods in between that I quit playing or took a break. The longest I can remember was last august because of some RL issues. I haven't quite recovered after that.

Tibianews: A question you probably have heard way too many times before; why did you decide to stay in Rookgaard?

Subaru-Sama: First of all, I do have mainland characters. It's just that they don't hold the "Subaru-sama" tag, people don't quite recognise me as such. Although none of those characters ever reached the "awesome" level my Securan character reached (32, almost 33).

The reason changed over time, really. I first started sticking around Rookgaard because I was just plain lazy. I didn't actually have to be on main to roleplay. I had made a few friends at that time so I could afford missing out on the mainland.

After some time, I just enjoyed sticking around Rookgaard and mucked around in Game-Chat which was quite a cohesive group. I got asked by Sir William Explorer to join the guild "Force of Rookgaard" after which I remained there because I felt I could help the newbies a bit in their first steps. At that time, there was no tutor system nor any actual manual for newbies or even anti-luring system. So frequently, it ended up in a mess with a pk trap. It was quite rewarding and people would recognise the names after a while and kept me entertained.

When the tutor system and the sort was introduced, I also took a break for the first time and found my way to Hiberna where I stuck to Rookgaard because of mentions from Trimera where tutors were hunted for namelocking some high level. After all, I didn't feel the need to get killed for whatever stuff I was handling.

At the end, I just stuck the "rule" that all Subaru-sama characters would stay on Rookgaard because it'd feel a bit odd for any of my characters to be on main other than on the test server. With the exception of Subaru-sama on Main, which was for the sole intention to marry my current girlfriend (also outside of the game). Everyone at that time found it quite strange for me to actually be on main.

Tibianews: Its is well known that you were Deputy Editor on Tibianews for quite some time! What can you tell our readers about that?

Subaru-Sama: They made me do it! :’( … Well, prior to becoming a part of the current forum, I was already bugging Ex with seemingly useless stuff. Such as my idea for an RSS feed, typos, mistakes in code, news items...

The moment I actually joined the forum, he probably "spotted" me as a willing victim to be raised to staff member without even applying. I had been bugging him so much it'd be more efficient that way, although I had no intention of applying. Being quite honest, the moment I saw the internal forums, I sent Ex a message that I saw forums regular users shouldn't be able to see (such as myself at that time). Imagine my surprise when I had the weird rank next to my name in the "hello" thread. When the forum became a bit bigger, I was once again victimized by Ex, being raised to mod without asking. And when I bugged him for a while, he bumped me to admin there because he was too lazy to do the bans himself.

When I became more interested in the frontpage, such as shortnews, pictures and the code, I asked to become a deputy (the only thing I actually asked for myself) and was granted that position. Although I have made a fair share of shortnews, pictures and such, I've mostly been hiding behind the scenes working on the source code. But, because of Ex leaving the team and taking the most important access with him (the rights to actually change the frontpage itself), I've been stuck for quite a while. But we're working on a new system where we won't have to be all that dependant on a (deputy) editor leaving, which I hope to see finished sooner than later, so I'm glad that there is still interest from Ex's side to lift TN to "web 2.0".

Tibianews: We can see that you own a site called Nullfix. Now that you are retired from Tibia. What will happen to that site?

Subaru-Sama: Well, because I moved away from Tibia and it's only natural for Nullfix to do the same. Although I don't have an absolute new destination, I've already rearranged the site so I can move it in any direction I want. For now, it's a blog for me and my girlfriend, along with being the regular dumpspot as I've always used it as. But I can imagine that it'll change over time. I've already found another game to get addicted to. Don't want to make Nullfix a fansite of that one though.

Tibianews: Why do you call yourself "The worst Tutor"?

Subaru-Sama: Because it's the truth, perhaps? ^_^ It started of as a joke, really. The thing is that I wasn't the ideal tutor to start off with. I usually answered the questions sarcastically, such as a person asking for help and then saying he's Polish. Obviously, I can't help with that. We got governments for that. Although it's funny to see, it's not exactly proper for a tutor to make fun of someone in need of help publically. Internally, fine. The thought was that I was the telltale signs that if you'd get any worse than me, you (and the server) would be better off not being a tutor.

Tibianews: You have been a Tutor for a long time but now you are retiring. Do you think Cipsoft will invite you to join the Senator team?

Subaru-Sama: No, they haven't asked me nor do I think they will. The thing is that me and CIP aren't on the same line on a number of subjects. I've strongly opposed the supported fansite system as it is currently and has been for the past year and a half. I've also set my questionmarks with their policy on premium sales as they have denied a site to sell them, yet allow TibiaBR to do so.

Although it's "business as usual", there is definately a bit of bad blood from my side. Don't know if the feeling is mutual. So from that perspective, it's probably best that they don't ask me as senator.

Tibianews: What do you think of the way the game have been developing? Do you like it more now? Do you prefer the way it used to be?

Subaru-Sama: I have been very cautious about calling it "all bad" or "all good". I think that some things have gone for the worst, such as the magic update. Other parts such as more difficult and longer quests are for the better as well as the new graphics. Overall, I think they could've done better.

The way it used to be is definately gone. That's one thing that people have to realise. It's more the community part that CIP has to earn their credit from. The community has gotten less tight as we've seen in 2003. As I said earlier, if you had Game-Chat open, you'd know the bulk of the people you needed to know. Nowadays, it's a miracle if half the community can communicate properly in English. CIP has already mentioned on their site that the majority of the players is from Brasil and Poland. I suspect that we'll all have to learn Portuguese and Polish if we want to survive the next update as I doubt the community will get any closer as it goes now.

The enforcement back then was less extensive back in the days I started, so the gamemaster crew had a bit of slack on how they applied the rules. It has stiffened up quite a bit since. Although that can be traced back to that Tibia has grown exponentially over the years, the gamemaster crew hasn't and doesn't make the gamemasters stand close to the community which is, in my opinion, a good idea ecause that'd also leave them some slack in how harsh they should punish. As it stands now, I'm not sure if the gamemasters even remotely know the people they place bans on, although it also has its charms.

But what is clear is that although the team has grown a bit, it's still heavily undermanned, even with the tutor system in place. The communication and even the guidelines between those groups are quite minimalistic, if even that.

I could go rant all day about what I dislike and what I'd rather see changed as any other old-school Tibian can. But I doubt that'll bring us anywhere. Wisdom to the one who manages to get everything together.

Tibianews: And now the question everyone is asking... Is there anything we can do to convince you to come back?

Subaru-Sama: Nope. I've lost the last interest I had in Tibia. Although I regret the way it ended, I don't regret it has ended. Strangely enough, it was quite a lot easier to leave this time than it was the last time when I took a break for a month. But I guess it was the unsolvable dispute that led me to leave. Can't live with something you can't live with, after all. Besides, with the spare time I have now, I've found quite some interesting things to do.

Tibianews: Is there anything you would like to tell our readers?

Subaru-Sama: I love cookies, I love my kitty, I love the way that my computer goes "beep" when I remove someone's post. But the moment you lose the things you love about the game, it's absolutely the moment to leave. I agree with the people that say that only a handfull actually leave the game. Because it's addicting, it's just a task to find another addiction. But I found the best addiction inside Tibia, without it being Tibia. I'm quite grateful for that. As last word: MCLFoG will find you, whenever you execute a cookie by eating it!

Tibianews: Well, thank you very much for your time and for everything you’ve done for the Tibianews. Good luck with your life and future projects.

Subaru-Sama: Thanks. Same to you.